Five Places to Visit in St. Louis

Since I've done a bit of traveling, and we visit certain things in each city - it made me think about what things would I tell someone to visit if they were a tourist in St. Louis.  I'm sure there are a bunch of these lists and I'm sure that I'm probably missing something so cool and so neat that it's just downright shameful... BUT I do know somethings about his city and thought I'd put together a list of things I think people should do when they come to St. Louis.

1. The Gateway Arch aka Jefferson National Expansion Memorial:  I love the Arch... let me say that first.  It's truly amazing!!  I will never get sick of looking up at it.  That being said after I've been up there like billion times while working there I do think the trip to the top can be overrated and overpriced.  I still think that if you've never done it before and/or are visiting St. Louis it's one of the things that you should just do!  The tram ride to the top is different and an experience in itself.  While looking out the windows is neat for awhile the better part is seeing the floor curve and being able to stand at the tip-top of the Arch.  The other cool thing is you might even be lucky enough to feel it sway.  I'll tell you from working there I only felt it truly sway a handful of times - although visitors swore they were feeling something (they weren't), but it's quite the experience if you do get to see it.  Another thing:  If you can't see the top of the Arch when you are on the ground you will not be able to see much looking out.  I could probably go on way too much about the Arch because it is near and dear to my heart... so I'll spare you some details - So... just go there.  Also, you can visit another National Park Site!!
   
 
2. Forest Park:  I'm cheating a bit with this one - because you could spend multiple days at Forest Park, but I only have five places on my list and I could come up with five places within Forest Park alone.  The park covers over 1,300 acres.  I can't remember the stat exactly but it's on scale with New York's Central Park in size.  The nice thing about St. Louis is a lot of our museums and our zoo are free to get into!  Some of the things at Forest Park include the St. Louis Zoo, Art Museum, History Museum, Science Center, and the Boathouse.  All of these places are wonderful, but of course there's even more that's not listed.  You should also just drive around the park - there's a lot to see!! 
   
 
3. Grant's Farm:  I grew up just down the street from Grant's Farm, meaning I saw it pretty much every day.  I love Grant's Farm.  I love that it's free to get into (you can't really get by without paying to park which is $12 if I remember correctly)  There are many things to see here but my favorites are seeing the shows and feeding the baby goats bottles.  I also like that you can feed camels - because where else can you do that?!?  They also have an awesome biergarten where you can even same some Anheuser Busch products!  Their deer park is awesome too they take you on a "train" and you can see animals up close.  The cool (or frustrating park depending how you look at it) is you see different animals nearly every time.  Oh, and you can see the famous Clydesdales!!
   
 
4. City Museum: City Museum is just one of those places you have to see to really understand.  It's amazing - every where you look there something and they are continuously building new stuff.  This is fun for adults and kids alike... however probably not best for small kids.  You will probably have even more fun than I did recently if you're gutsy enough to climb in tunnels... I always have a weird fear of getting stuck.  There are a lot of add-on things you can do while here and honestly I haven't done many of them.  The City Museum is just truly amazing and giant work of art that you you play on... it's really just incredible.  I know I haven't said much in this post about what it actually is.  You just need to go there any experience it for yourself... trust me, you won't be disappointed!
   
 
5. Magic House: I have not been to the Magic House in years... it's really aimed at children and since I don't really have any children to go with, I haven't been.  That being said, I know it's a great place to visit especially if you do have those aforementioned kids!!  It's grown substantially since I last walked through it's doors and I really want to see what's in there.  It tends to rank high on lists of best places to visit.  I still have fond memories of going there - like the big slide down from the third floor or the electro-static ball that makes your hair stand up or the room where you jump around with the colors - not even sure if those things are still there, but if they are not just know even better stuff replaced them.
   

 

That concludes my list of five places you should visit in St. Louis... nothing is probably that surprising on the list... maybe I should do another entry with five more places that may be different than lists already out there.  Is there anything you think should outrank some of these... I could have replace Brewery Tour for Magic House to hit the adult crowd :)